North East Waxcaps
New for 2026, share your sightings of the North East’s vibrant waxcaps and help map these important indicators across the region.
Waxcaps Across the North East
Shining like jewels in grassy places each autumn, waxcaps are among our most beautiful wild fungi. Alongside other grassland fungi, they are also important indicators of rare, species-rich grasslands.
Many species remain under-recorded in North East England and, working with our friends at the North East Fungus Study Group, we need your help to track them down.
Urban or rural, beginner or expert – everyone can take part in North East Waxcaps. By joining in, you’ll help increase our knowledge of these remarkable fungi, reveal new information about the region’s waxcap grasslands, and contribute to the conservation of these special places.
Taking Part is Simple
You don’t need specialist identification skills to get involved. Anyone in the North East can take part. Simply:
- Spot a waxcap
- Take a photo with your camera or smartphone
- Share your sighting on iRecord, making sure to join the project
- Share your finds on social media using #NorthEastWaxcaps
By sharing the waxcaps you see across the North East, you’ll be doing more than simply sharing a record. Your sightings will enable surveys of key sites identified as important for grassland fungi. All records, once verified, will be shared with the Environmental Records Information Centre North East (ERIC).
Take Part on iRecord
Sightings of all waxcap fungi are very welcome.
Listening to your feedback, we’ve now made it simpler than ever to take part. Simply join the activity below, and any records you share through iRecord or the iRecord app will automatically be counted as part of the project.
If you have an iRecord account, you can add North East Waxcaps to your Activities by joining here and clicking the blue ‘Join’ button.
Help Identifying Waxcaps?
All of our target species have been chosen to be identifiable by beginners and amateur recorders. You can explore them in more detail in our species profiles.
For field recording, Peachy Steve’s UK Waxcaps app is a fantastic free tool to help you identify your finds.
If you’re looking for something more detailed, you can also download an excellent identification key below.
Target Species
Waxcaps are among the most striking of our autumn fungi. The twelve species below are readily identifiable by amateur naturalists – how many will you find?
New to iRecord?›
iRecord is a national platform collating the observations and records of citizen scientists across the country. It helps your records get to where they need to be – informing conservation and research locally and nationwide.
By contributing to iRecord, you ensure that your records make it to the regional verifiers, county recorders and organisations using your data for conservation.
New to iRecord? Here’s what you need to know to get started.
More on North East Waxcaps
Join our WhatsApp Group
To support your waxcap recording, we’ve teamed up with mycologist Sally Pattison to set up a new WhatsApp group to help you identify your finds. All are welcome.
Waxcap Grasslands in Northumberland
Created by Abi Mansley, Senior Environmental Analyst at Northumberland Council, this interactive map shows the location of known waxcap grasslands across Northumberland.